Social networking becomes bigger target for hackers

With revenue from financial sector getting harder to come by, hackers are now targeting other sectors including healthcare and social networking, according to Worklight.

WorkLight says that RSA chief Art Coviello's observations that hackers are now posing a real threat to the online world is something that major corporates should sit up and take notice of.

'Coviello says that hackers are developing plans to attack healthcare providers as their revenue streams from the financial services sector start to dry up,' said David Lavenda, WorkLight's director of marketing and strategy.

'It's also fascinating that the RSA chief also notes that criminals are also expanding their operations vertically into sites like Facebook,' he added.

According to Lavenda, whilst Coviello dismisses biometrics as an imperfect solution to current IT security problems, it is interesting to hear his views that the technology will develop to the point where it offers very high levels of protection - eventually.

'As always, there is no silver bullet. Companies will continue to need to take a multi-layered approach to security, including using secure network technologies to access Web 2.0 services like Facebook and MySpace,' he explained.

Lavenda went on to say that firms need to evolve a secure access strategy with social networking sites, in order to securely tap into the significant B2B and B2C benefits that these services offer.